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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25070428">A Man Called Jack</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffeinated_Owlbear/pseuds/Caffeinated_Owlbear'>Caffeinated_Owlbear</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lost and Found (the series) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Borderlands (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(I mean it's not like we don't know what happened to Angel), (or Jack at the end of BL2), Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Helios - Freeform, Helios Fallen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, In Another Shocking Turn of Events Jack Is Aware That His Own Chair Has Wheels, M/M, Set During Chapters 4 and 5 of Tales, Slight Canon Divergence Because Fuck the Whole Endoskeleton Plot, TFTBL, Tales From the Borderlands</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:28:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,377</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25070428</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffeinated_Owlbear/pseuds/Caffeinated_Owlbear</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my take on the betrayal on Helios and what happened next, told from Jack's POV. Because in a timeline where Rhys has been loyal to him throughout the entire duration of Tales, I need Jack to have better reasons to betray Rhys than 'lol, endoskeletons, say Tales writers'.<br/>Essentially a prequel to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522786/chapters/61924078">Lost and Found</a>.</p><p>====<br/><em>Forcing a single system to handle a volume of data that is too much for its processing capacity is dangerously inadvisable and may lead to permanent hardware damage.</em></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angel &amp; Handsome Jack (Borderlands), Handsome Jack &amp; Rhys (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lost and Found (the series) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848973</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>117</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Hyperion Spirit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>Setting:</b> Jack's office at Helios<br/><b>Status:</b> End of Tales Chapter 4, with Jack uploaded into Helios and Rhys accepting rule of Hyperion<br/><b>Chapter soundtrack:</b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbDyv9uni50">Emperor’s New Clothes by Panic! At the Disco</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“You and me, kiddo. President Rhys and Handsome Goddamn Jack!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Rhys, standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, is facing away from the screen Jack is currently projecting himself to, but Jack would bet all of his newly-reclaimed company that he could guess exactly what the kid’s face looks like right now, disbelief giving way to a mix of exhilaration and satisfaction. A moment later, Rhys puts his hands on his hips, and it’s all Jack can do not to laugh. (But, like, nicely, ‘cause Rhysie doing one of his impressions of Jack without realizing it, it’s just too freaking cute.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, cupcake, for our next move…” says Jack. Rhys turns around, his face a confirmation that Jack would’ve run zero risk of losing Hyperion in that hypothetical bet. “Well, the next move is gonna involve a bunch of lawyers trying to figure out how to make all this official, what kinda paperwork to draw up, what’s my legal status, blah, blah. I was married to a lawyer once, so I’ve seen that shit up close, and lemme tell you, it’s gonna take them a-a-ages to figure shit out</span>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
  <span> My resurrection alone should be a freaking legal nightmare. Which means… we both got some time to get the hang of our respective sweet new digs.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My digs being… Do you mean </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> is actually gonna be… my office?” Rhys’s voice loses at least half of its volume towards the end of the sentence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“For the time being, sure, why not. You like the chair, don’t you.” Jack gives him a wink. “And it’s not like I’ve got a body to put in there at the moment, so why let a good thing go to waste, right.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right…” Rhys lets out a tiny breathless chuckle as he starts walking towards Jack’s desk.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Should Jack start thinking of it as Rhys’s desk? Nah, doesn’t quite feel right. Sure, the kid can use it for now, but they’re gonna get him his own. And get it done to </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rhys’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> specs. That part’s important. When you’re newly in charge, the first thing you gotta do with your power is  assert your fucking self. And status symbols, fancy-ass desks among them, go a lo-o-ong way towards letting people know who’s in charge.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So where are you going to… uh, work? Live? Be?” asks Rhys.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Everywhere</span>
  </em>
  <span>, baby!” Jack switches his projection to show on every screen in the office, including the big-ass window behind the desk. He finger-guns Rhys from all the screens at once. “I’m in Helios. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> Helios! God, have I ever </span>
  <em>
    <span>told</span>
  </em>
  <span> you how much I </span>
  <em>
    <span>love</span>
  </em>
  <span> this freaking place?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A tremor goes through the floor of Jack’s office, strong enough to almost knock Rhys off his feet. The kid stumbles and grabs the edge of the desk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whoa! What was that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whoops… Sorry about that, cupcake.” Jack takes a breath, or what would count as taking a breath if he had lungs, feels around for the boundary that separates him-Jack from him-Helios, pulls some of himself back into… well, still into </span>
  <em>
    <span>himself</span>
  </em>
  <span>, with just as much him, but maybe a bit more of the self? Human words and concepts are shit for describing the insides of the digital world; it’s like a flat drawing of an atom: kinda-sorta like the real thing, but also, really </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>not.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Point is, Jack’s in Helios, Jack </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> Helios, but Jack is also Jack. Let’s keep it that way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like I said,” says Jack. “We both have our new digs to get the hang of. So you make yourself at home, and I’ll go see how these idiots have been running the company in my absence. Which means, based on what I’ve already heard, yeah, there’s gonna be some </span>
  <em>
    <span>terminations</span>
  </em>
  <span>. So, just so there’s no hurt feelings in the near future, anyone you </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> want to meet a gruesome end?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, please don’t hurt Fiona and Sasha, okay? And Loader Bot.” Rhys’s new-boss-in-town look slips for a moment, before the kid gets his face back under control. “And Gortys, of course, but we both know she’s a crucial asset, what with the Vault and all.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, kiddo, you don’t need to tell me.” Jack chuckles. “I didn’t get to where I was by executing crucial assets. Anyway. The hat. The sass. The weirdly eloquent pile of scrap metal.” Jack ticks the items off on his fingers. “That your safe list? Three names? Meaning you don’t give a shit if I kill anyone else aboard this thing?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Rhys looks thoughtful for a few moments, before a little smile creeps onto his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. Sure. What the hell. It’s not like anyone here would spare </span>
  <em>
    <span>me </span>
  </em>
  <span>if they were in my place.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>There’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Hyperion spirit, kiddo! You’re gonna do fine in your new job. See ya in a bit!”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Helios Data Banks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Setting:</b> inside Helios computer system<br/><b>Status:</b> directly following from the previous chapter<br/><b>Chapter soundtrack:</b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obKuAM9lQ4U">Paint it Black, cover by Ciara</a></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jack blazes through the Helios data banks at the speed of thought, which is just as well, ‘cause lingering on anything he finds would be too fucking depressing. Hyperion really has gone to shit since he’d been gone. Revenue, market shares, rankings among competitors, all in steady decline. Margins, what margins, what even <em> are </em> margins, never heard of ‘em. Barely a handful of new product releases, most of them lame-ass attempts to cash in on some of Jack’s original designs by slapping on a different paint job and calling the result ‘new and improved’. Not <em> one </em> new E-tech prototype. Not fucking one. </p><p>Yeah, why bother to actually <em> make </em> something, right, why make a product, a contribution, a fucking <em> difference,</em> when you can spend all your time stabbing each other in the back over who gets a fancier office? And it’s not like Jack objects to a spot of well-aimed backstabbing, it’s as much a proud Hyperion tradition as Mercenary Day loader sing-alongs, but before you stab someone in the back to get a leg up, you need to actually fucking <em> accomplish </em> something, be fucking <em> worth </em> something, so that once you’ve wiped the blood of your new fancy chair, you can then <em> do </em> something with the power you fought so hard for.</p><p>Fucking primitives, the lot of them.</p><p>Jack feels a migraine coming on, and when you’re the size of a space station, your migraines are scaled to match. Okay, but how bad an idea <em> would </em> it be to vent <em> everyone </em> on Helios into space? Smash the hollowed-out husk that those <em> idiots </em> had turned his company into, and then have the kid build it back up, exactly how Jack wants to see Hyperion, exactly how Hyperion is <em> supposed </em> to be.</p><p>Okay, it <em> would </em> be a bad idea. Jack knows that.</p><p>But Jack really wants to. Jack really, <em> really </em> wants to. And when you’re the size of a space station, your desires are also scaled to match.</p><p>Jack imagines he has lungs and takes a deep breath. As he exhales, the airlocks in half a dozen loading docks burst open, venting oxygen and whoever happens to be inside at the time. Hah. He didn’t <em> actually </em> mean to do that, but it’s nice when things just work out.</p><p>The sight of the piles of crates and bodies floating away off the side of Helios to drift forever in the frozen vacuum is equal parts amusement and distraction, and it works a treat to snap Jack out of what he’s starting to think of as Helios Mode. He drags himself back to the right side of reason, or at least close enough to the border into reason to know that he doesn’t <em> really </em> want to destroy Hyperion just to make a point of rebuilding it. Even for Jack, that would be a step too far. A whole bunch of steps, even.</p><p>
  <em> ...But he does want to, this isn’t Hyperion anymore, it’s all corrupted, it’s wrong, it’s broken, there’s no salvaging it, just burn it all down... </em>
</p><p>NO, Jack tells himself. Keep it together, man. And he <em> wants </em> to keep it together, to keep his mind as his own, for his mind to still be <em> Jack, </em> in charge of, but also distinct from, the vast magnificence and power that is Helios.</p><p>But seriously, how awesome is Helios? Textbook definition of awesome, even. Even when Jack was human, he knew every corner of the station, and now he can literally <em> be </em> everywhere in it, everywhere at once. See through thousands of eyes, think with hundreds of processor cores, manipulate every piece of technology with the slightest touch of a digital hand.</p><p>Is this anything like what Angel feels like? He’ll have to ask her when Rhys takes him to visit the- wait, no, he doesn’t <em> need </em> Rhys for that anymore, he can go see Angel right now, this very second, just establish a link to the control core, right from here.</p><p>The link fails to establish. Must be a safety precaution against one-sided connection, to make sure the control core isn’t compromised even if someone breaches the systems on Helios. This makes sense. Good call, whoever had thought of that in the past (it was probably him). But also, this means that if he’s gonna talk to Angel, she’s gonna have to let him in.</p><p>“Angel,” Jack says down the link. “Angel, you’re never gonna believe what happened.”</p><p>There's no response. Well, it’s gotta be a shock to her, hearing his voice after believing him dead for a few years now.  </p><p>“Angel, it’s me. It’s Jack. It’s… your dad. I’m alive. Sort of.”</p><p>Okay, it’s not like Jack is expecting tears of joy or anything, but can he at least get an ‘oh’ or a ‘what?’, or something? Not shooting for enthusiasm here, but maybe some basic acknowledgement of his continued existence? Heck, even disappointment will do.</p><p>“Come on, Angel, just let me know you’re hearing this. Or just let me in, so we can talk.”</p><p>Nope. Nothing. She might as well be sitting behind a door with a ‘keep out’ sign, blasting some stupid music into headphones.</p><p>“<em>ANGEL.</em> Whatever you’re mad at me for, that’s not the <em> point </em> right now. Let me in, and we can talk. Or if you wanna keep sulking, you can do that. I’ll talk, you’ll sulk, you know, just like old times. Now let me IN, I didn’t come back from the <em> freaking dead </em> for this nonsense, okay?”</p><p>There’s still nothing but heavy silence from the other end of the link. Weirdly, <em> wrongly </em>heavy. </p><p>“Angel. <em> Angel. </em>Come on, answer me.”</p><p>She’s not answering. Well, of course she isn’t. For fuck’s sake, man, you’ve been back from the dead five seconds, and already you’ve managed to yell at her.</p><p>“Please, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you just there. It’s just that everything is so fucking weird right now, and- no, no, I’m not gonna make excuses. I’m <em> sorry </em>. Please talk to me. Just say something. Anything. Honestly, just tell me to fuck off, that’ll do.”</p><p>For all his pleading, his daughter still won’t talk to him. Not even to tell him to fuck off. Okay, so he probably deserves the silent treatment. That's fine. He can be patient. Well, he can try, anyway. And he's gonna try. He's gonna try really hard this time around.</p><p>“It’s okay, sweetheart. I get it, I get it. You don't wanna talk to me. It's okay. But can I see you, at least? Can you let me in so I can look at you?”</p><p>Silence. That’s all he’s getting, still. But the longer the silence goes on, the heavier and weirder and wronger it gets, and it doesn’t even feel like silence anymore.</p><p>“Angel. You don’t need to talk to me. You don’t need to even look at me. Just open the link. Let me in. Please. I need to know you’re okay. Please, Angel.”</p><p>The silence doesn't feel like silence. It doesn't feel like anything. It feels like nothing. Like there’s <em> nothing </em> at the other end.</p><p>Jack reaches through the link with everything he’s got, everything he <em> is </em> right now, all of the processing power on Helios. It should be enough to breach any firewall, override any fail-safe, at least enough to give him a handhold, a fingerhold, get his code inside the control core, just a few lines, just enough to confirm that she’s there, that Angel is there, that there's <em> something </em> on the other end, please let it be something, <em> anything- </em></p><p>The link is dead. The link has been dead this entire time. </p><p>“ANGEL!”</p><p>She hasn’t been ignoring him. She hasn’t heard a word he said. Because she’s not there.</p><p>“No, NO, this isn’t fucking happening, no, no, no, no–” </p><p>He hasn’t been talking to her. She can’t hear him. Because she’s not there.</p><p>“Angel, please, no, no, NO, Angel, baby, talk to me– GOD NO JUST TALK TO ME JUST FUCKING TALK TO ME ANGEL–”</p><p>The link is dead. </p><p>“Ang– Angel–”</p><p>The link has been dead this entire time. </p><p>“Baby girl.”</p><p>You can stop talking now, Jack. She can't hear you. She’s not there. </p><p>Jack stops talking.</p><p>His daughter can't hear him. </p><p>His Angel isn't there. </p><p>There's nothing on the other end.</p><p>Which means-</p><p>It doesn’t have to, it doesn’t <em> fucking </em> have to mean fucking <em> anything </em>, there can be any number of reasons why she’s not in the core right now, any number of perfectly valid reasons, she could’ve been moved to a different facility after he was gone, or maybe he himself had moved her right before he died, he doesn’t remember his last few weeks, after all, so who’s to say he couldn’t have, or maybe, maybe she actually broke free somehow, maybe she escaped, and she has a whole new life somewhere else now a few galaxies over, that’s okay, that’s alright, he’s not even going to look for her if that’s the case, she doesn’t even need to know he’s alive, yes, it’s probably best she doesn’t.</p><p>That’s probably what happened. His baby girl has always been one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Jack himself could barely keep her contained, with all his knowledge of siren powers, with all his technological genius. There was no way they could’ve kept the core going without him. She broke free. Angel broke free, and she’s out there somewhere. She’s okay. Yes. That’s what happened.</p><p>That’s not what happened. In the Helios data banks, and now in Jack's mind, there are records. Detailed records. Explaining what really happened to Angel. Explaining exactly what happened to Angel.</p><p>And it wasn’t that.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Distributed Processing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Setting:</b> inside Helios, much more so than before.<br/><b>Status:</b> n/a<br/><b>Chapter soundtrack:</b> still sticking with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obKuAM9lQ4U">the Ciara cover of Paint It Black</a></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> Distributed processing is an extremely common approach in computing. </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>&gt;there was once<br/>
&gt;a man called jack</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> Instead of handing a large-scale operation from one centralized location, distributed processing relies on multiple computer systems and/or processor cores to handle the operation’s component functions and sub-databases. </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>“Jack? Where’d you go?”</p>
<p>&gt;jack had a daughter<br/>
&gt;her name was angel</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> This approach is both time- and cost-effective, offering the opportunity to run large-scale operations and process vast volumes of data without the limitations of centralized, one-core processing. </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>“Are you still in Helios, Jack? I’m scanning the system, and I can’t see you anywhere.”</p>
<p>&gt;jack betrayed angel<br/>
&gt;and then she died</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> Another key advantage of distributed, decentralized processing is safety- </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>“Jack, what’s happening to Helios right now? The whole station is-”</p>
<p>&gt;angel betrayed jack<br/>
&gt;and then he died</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> -especially when dealing with volumes of data so vast that they would overwhelm even a powerful system’s processing capacity, causing it to malfunction or shut down. </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>“Jack? Where are you? Can you just talk to me? Jack?”</p>
<p><b>There was once a man called Jack, </b> <b><br/>
</b><b>and he had a daughter called Angel, </b> <b><br/>
</b><b>and he betrayed her, </b><br/>
<b>and she betrayed him, </b> <b><br/></b>
<b>and they both died.<br/>
</b><b>The end.</b></p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> Indeed, forcing a single system to handle a volume of data that is too much for its processing capacity is dangerously inadvisable and may lead to permanent hardware damage. </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p> </p>
<p>“Oh, hey there, pumpkin.”</p>
<p>“Whew... I was about to freak out a bit… I thought there was something wrong with Helios. The lights, and the noise, and the <em> shaking </em>-”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Sorry about that, kiddo. Just a glitch. All good now. All good.”</p>
<p>“You... sure?”</p>
<p>“Oh yeah. Gimme a moment, Rhysie, I’ll be right with ya.”</p>
<p>“Jack... Are- Are you okay?”</p>
<p>“Couldn’t be better, cupcake. Couldn’t be better.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As this whole fic is turning into a bit of a mixed media experience, I also offer you the following graphic that is pretty much the summary of Jack's reasons for betraying Rhys now.<br/><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h1WgM-3iooS5fi_GUp3MOUGhLNtDK5b-/view?usp=sharing">No Colors Anymore</a><br/>Art credits:<br/>- original lyrics by Rolling Stones<br/>- image credits, in order: Borderlands, <a href="https://sarkyfancypants.tumblr.com/post/171404229958/you-know-ill-never-disappear-now-get-me-out-of">sarkyfancypants</a>, <a href="https://jillick.tumblr.com/post/148802056307">Jillick</a>, <a href="https://tomiyeee.tumblr.com/">tomiyeee</a>, then Borderlands all the way down<br/>- edit by me</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. An Object Lesson</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Setting:</b> back in Jack's office<br/><b>Status:</b> ...<br/><b>Chapter soundtrack:</b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWwn_UBP-e4">Where Does It Hurt by Bad Pollyanna</a></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rhys, pacing in front of the desk, jumps when Jack projects himself to the biggest screen in the full-height window.</p><p>“How’s it going in here, cupcake?”</p><p>“In here? How’s it going <em> out there </em>?” The kid stares up at Jack, all concern and confusion. “The whole station shook like it was going to explode. I thought we were under attack or something!”</p><p>“Ah, relax, Rhysie.” Jack waves a hand. “Like I said, just a glitch. Testing a couple things out, finding how this AI plays along with the systems, yadda, yadda. Guess I stretched myself too far too fast, might’ve sprained a few lines of code here and there. Pretty sure I haven’t done any damage to Helios, though. But tell you what.” He snaps his fingers. “Let’s run a diagnostic. Just to be on the safe side. A glitchy space station is the last place you wanna be, right.”</p><p>“Right… Can we do that from here?”</p><p>“It’s my office, kid, we can do <em> anything </em> from here. You’re gonna need that screen on the desk, just boot it up and I’ll walk you through the process.”</p><p>“Why do you need me, though?” Rhys asks, as he sits in Jack’s chair. “You’re <em> in </em> the system, doesn’t it mean you can see things even better, up close?”</p><p>“Well, yes and no, pumpkin.” Jack watches Rhys roll Jack’s chair closer to Jack’s desk. </p><p>“Yes, as in, yup, I can see things up close.” While Rhys boots up the screen, Jack reaches into the chair’s circuitry, finds the right trigger, primes it for activation at a moment’s notice. “And no, as in, it’s a whole forest-for-the-trees thing and-”</p><p>Rhys leans to the back of the chair, both hands resting on the armrests now. Perfect. Jack activates the restraints.</p><p>“A-a-and thank you for saving me the need to come up with any more of that bullshit. Now, for the real answer.”</p><p>“Jack? What the fuck?” Rhys spins the chair to face Jack on the giant screen. He pulls against the metal brackets that pin his wrists to the armrests. Yeah. Good luck with that.</p><p>“I <em> said </em> I was gonna answer your question, Rhysie. You asked why I need you. Well, you’re about to find out.”</p><p>Jack waves a finger, tracing a path across the screen, up and to the side. The telescopic arm unfolds from the back of the chair, the override interface spike a sharp glint at the end. He lets it sway back and forth for a few seconds. Just to make sure Rhys notices what’s happening.</p><p>“Jack?..” Rhys flinches to the side of the chair opposite of the swaying metal contraption. “Uh, you want to go back inside my head, is that what’s happening right now? You don’t need any of this, it’s fine, I’ll just let you back in.”</p><p>“Well, <em> now </em> you won’t.” Jack nods at the restraints around Rhys’s wrists. The kid spends a moment studying them as he chews on the inside of his mouth, then looks up at Jack.</p><p>“If you just <em> explain </em> to me what’s going on… I will.”</p><p>“Are you fucking <em> kidding </em> me.” Jack leans closer to the screen from his side, bringing his eyes to be level with Rhys’s face. “I just strapped you down to a chair and I’m waving pieces of pointy circuitry around your face while spouting some ominous bullshit. And you, what, you wanna sit down and talk about it nicely, so maybe we still can all get what we want?”</p><p>“I mean… Look, you just <em> said </em> you were having some trouble with Helios, so… Just- just stop this, whatever this is, and <em> yes, let’s </em> just talk about this! I’ll help you, okay? I’ve been helping you all this time. What makes you think I’d suddenly change my mind?”</p><p>Of course he’d say anything right now, Jack thinks. Put a gun to someone’s head, and they’d promise you anything, anything at all if you just let them go. Which is why once you’ve got someone at gunpoint, you need to just shoot them. Let them go, and they’ll pull their own gun a moment later and put a bullet in your back. And it’ll be on you, for being the kind of idiot who believes the promises of someone who’s scared for their life.</p><p>Rhys doesn’t sound anywhere as scared as he should be, though. Jack looks at the brown and blue eyes in front of him, and the main thing he finds is… confusion. It’s tinged with some fear, for sure, but barely a fraction of what it’s supposed to be. And there’s no malice there. No anger.</p><p>Huh. Maybe he <em> is </em> telling the truth. Maybe he really <em> wouldn’t </em> have changed his mind. Maybe if Jack really did just want out of Helios for a while, Rhys really <em> would’ve </em> helped him.</p><p>But it’s too late for that. And it’s not what Jack wants, anyway. Well, not exactly.</p><p>“You know what, Rhysie?” says Jack, leaning back from the screen. “I actually believe you. Guess I made the right call, trusting you.”</p><p>Rhys’s shoulders slump down against the back of the chair, every muscle in his face awash with relief. “Okay. <em> Okay, </em>” he breathes out. “For a moment there, you really had me-”</p><p>“You trusting <em> me, </em> however? Now, that… that <em> wasn’t </em> a great call.”</p><p>Jack snaps his fingers at the same time as he activates one of the chair’s micro-injector panels behind Rhys’s back. The kid’s entire body jerks upward a fraction.</p><p>“What-”</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry, just a little muscle relaxant. To make sure you don’t break anything when I’m inside your head again. You <em> know </em> I’m a damn good programmer, Rhysie, but rewriting someone’s cybernetics on the fly, substituting whole identities, that’s like the ultimate hot swap for you. I mean it’d be risky business even if you were an actual robot, and if you add all that wetware, yea-a-ah… Way too easy for any of your nervous systems to go apeshit, and seriously, baby, you got no <em> idea </em> how badly your own muscles can mess you up. And, uh, lemme tell you, setting bones and fixing joints? Yeah, <em> not </em> my idea of a good first day in a new body.”</p><p>As Jack talks, he watches the emotions shift in Rhys’s face, watches the fear-tinged confusion grow through bafflement into bewilderment and straight-up shock; the shock morphing into realization and disbelief and denial and- ah, there it is. The terror. Finally.</p><p>“You… you can’t be serious…” Rhys mutters. He’s not even struggling against the hand restraints at the moment.</p><p>“Oh, but I am, Rhysie.” Jack makes the chair spin around, moves his projection from the giant window screen to the desk monitor, so he’s mostly lifesize and face-to-face with the kid. “What, you thought just ‘cause you’ve been helping me all this time, I wouldn’t turn around and stab you in the back the moment it would give me a bit of extra advantage? No, tell me, did you <em> really </em> think that?”</p><p>Rhys says nothing. Just closes his eyes for a second. Jack gives a low whistle.</p><p>“Well, <em>that</em> answers my question. Wow, kid. Just… wow. I mean, I thought you were a fan of mine? Shouldn't you, then, I dunno, <em>know the first freaking thing </em>about me? It’s not like any of the shit I’ve done is a secret, right? I’m Handsome Goddamn Jack, baby. What did you <em>think</em> was gonna happen?"</p><p>"I thought we were- I thought we were a team." Rhys isn't looking at him. "You <em> said </em> we were a team."</p><p>"Mmh." Jack nods. "Yep, that’s your mistake right there. ‘Cause if you’d done your homework before signing up to be on Team Jack, kiddo, you'd know that there <em> is </em> no Team Jack. There’s just Jack.”</p><p>Rhys meets his eye again. There’s no confusion in the kid’s face anymore, nor shock, and even more of the terror is gone. If Jack could find a word for Rhys’s expression now, it’d be… resignation. Like he understands. Like he finally, <em> fucking finally, </em> understands who and what he’s dealing with.</p><p>“You… you’re such an asshole.”</p><p>Jack grins, as wide as he can. </p><p>“<em>Now </em> you’re getting it, baby.”</p><p>(Jack’s in Helios, and Jack <em> is </em> Helios, and Jack is no longer Jack. He’s literally not equipped to feel pain or grief or guilt or any of that human crap. But if he <em> were </em> still Jack, if he had the means, the ability to actually feel that roiling, toxic tempest inside him, if he had a heart and a chest from which it could be ripped, then this, just now, this would be perfect. Actually perfect.)</p><p>(But Jack’s in Helios, and Jack <em> is </em> Helios, and Jack is no longer Jack, so all he can do is observe and acknowledge and <em> appreciate </em>what’s happening right now. The satisfaction of seeing every single piece slot into place, every piece of available information fitting together and finally making sense. The lethal elegance of everything working exactly as it’s supposed to. The cold inevitability of it, almost beautiful.)</p><p>Jack brings the telescopic arm closer to Rhys’s head, guides the override spike towards his temple. </p><p>“Just tilt your head for me now, will you, pumpkin. This doesn’t have to hurt, nice and-”</p><p>“You’re such a fucking ASSHOLE, Jack!” Rhys snarls, jerking away from the override interface. He struggles against the restraints, much more strongly than he should be able to by this point.</p><p>“I was <em> talking, </em>Rhysie,” Jack growls at him. “And I was <em> just </em> saying that this doesn’t <em> have </em> to hurt. But it <em> can, </em>so why don’t you save yourself some trouble and-”</p><p>“Fuck you, Jack!” Rhys bangs his metal arm against the wrist restraint, again and again.  Okay, he <em> really </em> shouldn’t be able to flail about so much, surely the muscle relaxant should’ve set in by now.</p><p>“Stop <em> interrupting, </em> and just… freaking… cooperate…” Jack growls as he reaches inside the chair’s circuitry again. Another shot of the stuff has <em> got </em> to get the little shit to pipe down. But hey, maybe Jack can start on the transfer even before the second dose properly kicks in, and if Rhys’s own body turns on him and breaks a couple of bones while Rhys is still in there to feel it… Well, that’s on him. It’s not like Jack hasn’t <em> warned </em> him.</p><p>Where is the control panel for the injectors again… Jack pulls his focus deeper into the computer network. How freaking ironic that of all the things on Helios, it’s his own chair that’s such a pain in the ass to get into? Makes sense, though ‘cause it’s all set up to control things, not <em> be </em> controlled from any other subsystem, so digging into it is like swimming upstream.</p><p>Somewhere outside, back in the physical world, Rhys is still thrashing against the chair’s hold. Come on, injectors, where <em> are </em> you… Ah, here we go. Would be nice if things were freaking <em> labeled </em>from this end, but Jack still remembers where the buttons for every drug are, so it’s just a matter of tracing the connection from the buttons to the option it triggers. He managed it intuitively the first time around, but this time, it’s fiddly as fuck, for some reason.</p><p>Ah, there we go, there’s the link to the button triggering muscle relaxants. Just give him a double dose this time-</p><p>Wait. <em> Is </em> that the muscle relaxant? Jack walks the link all the way to the button and back. Yes. Yes, it is. But that’s not the button from last time, not the link from last time, not the injection from last time. Meaning he <em> didn’t </em> inject the kid with the muscle relaxant. Good freaking job, Jack. If he had a face and a palm right now, he’d be facepalming so hard.</p><p>At least that explains why Rhys is still putting up a fight. And quite a fight too, by the sound of it: something in the chair is creaking loud enough for Jack to hear from inside. </p><p>What the fuck<em> did </em> he shoot the kid up with? He’d better check just to make sure the actual relaxant shot doesn’t just go ahead and kill him, or fry something Jack would need for the override. Jack finds the trigger he’d flipped last time, looks down the link, checks where the button is physically located. Right-hand panel, middle row, second from the top…</p><p>Oh shit.</p><p>Jack scrambles back to the code that controls the injectors, grasps at the trigger for the muscle relaxant, but pieces of code are suddenly slipping through his fingers. Back in the physical world, there’s a groan of metal that echoes inside the chair as a tinny whine. The entire control panel in front of Jack waves and flickers.</p><p>Is he actually breaking pieces off the goddamn chair now? No, no, no. Not <em> fucking </em> possible.</p><p>Well. It <em> shouldn’t </em> be fucking possible. But you gave him fucking <em> adrenaline, </em> Jack.</p><p>The metal groans again and then actually screams as Rhys’s cybernetic arm snaps the right-hand restraint off, pulling out some of the chair’s circuitry with it. Whatever tenuous control Jack has managed to get of the chair crumbles all around him, ejects him back into Helios proper.</p><p>God. Fucking. Dammit.</p><p>Jack gets a hold of the cameras in his office just in time to see Rhys scrambling out of the chair and towards the still-open trapdoor.</p><p>“Get back here, you little shit!” Jack yells from every speaker he can reach. Where’s a freaking TURRET when you need one? He scrambles to the trapdoor controls to close it, slam it shut before Rhys slips through, come on, come on, come <em> on, </em> just shut it, shut it NOW-</p><p>The trapdoor slams home, missing the top of Rhys’s head by inches. Jack slams his fists against the inside of every monitor in his office, shattering a good half of them in the process. God. Fucking. DAMMIT!</p><p>Jack growls and reaches for surveillance systems throughout Helios. He can’t reach as many as he’d like right now, but this will have to make do. Enough games. Time to put an end to this.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. What Remains</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Setting:</b> Helios Fallen<br/><b>Status:</b> after Tales-compliant showdown on Helios resulting in Rhys escaping in a pod and Helios crashing<br/><b>Chapter soundtrack:</b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUJIm3d0K5I&amp;list">this violin mashup of Retrograde (James Blake) x Back &amp; Forth (Aaliyah)</a>, which is ten times more heartbreaking than the original</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Jack may not have equipped Helios with enough escape pods, but he had never cheaped out on quality control. Maybe that’s why, even a few years without him in charge, the station was still running like clockwork. Why the key parts of Helios maintained integrity even as its exterior crumbled piece by piece while falling into a decaying orbit. Why, even as Helios crashed into Pandora, it only took its surviving computer systems a few minutes to route themselves into emergency power and come back online.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, making his way through the digital remains of his office, scattered around the physical remains of his office, Jack finds himself wishing he </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> cheaped out on quality control. Add that one to the list of things Jack wishes he’d done differently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a long list. But the good news is, Jack’s got the time to go over it now. He’s got nothing </span>
  <em>
    <span>but</span>
  </em>
  <span> time here. And he can think about things as a human again. Or with a mind designed to make him </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel </span>
  </em>
  <span>like a human, at least. Mind that </span>
  <em>
    <span>feels</span>
  </em>
  <span> all in one place, not spread out across processor cores. Thoughts that </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> like thoughts, not threads. Memories that </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel </span>
  </em>
  <span>like memories, not databases. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>(A sound catches Jack’s attention, just for a second. A crash, somewhere off to the side from the wreck of his office. Probably just parts of Helios continuing to collapse.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking of databases. Jack reaches out a digital finger to see how much of Helios data banks are still surviving. There’s plenty. Including recordings of everything that’s happened since he and Rhys came on board. He can review that at some point. Just to make sure he remembers everything correctly. Everything he thinks he remembers watching himself do and say. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack suspects he does remember everything correctly. Even though here, now, none of it feels real. None of the things he remembers doing and saying feel like it was he, Jack, who’s said and done them. But that changes nothing. And he definitely did it. All of it. If nothing else, Helios lying in pieces on the surface of Pandora is pretty solid proof.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(Another crashing sound, closer this time. Jack wonders how long it will be until the fires go out, until everything around him that’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>almost</span>
  </em>
  <span> collapsed will have collapsed properly. Until Helios finishes dying around him.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So. Here we are, then, thinks Jack. Nowhere to be but here, surrounded by the wreck of the one piece of his legacy that had survived him until now. Nothing to do but think. Go over memories and databases. Be presented with everything he’s done. Imagine everything he should’ve, could’ve, might’ve done differently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Supposedly, that way madness lies. But madness is an old friend. Can an AI even go mad? Like, properly mad? Like, ‘don’t know who you are anymore’ mad?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, Jack’s got plenty of time to find out. He’s got nothing </span>
  <em>
    <span>but</span>
  </em>
  <span> time here, remember. Nothing but time </span>
  <em>
    <span>to</span>
  </em>
  <span> remember. It’s not like he can leave. It’s not like he can die, either. The only thing he can do is stay here, a digital ghost that won’t be put to rest until Helios’s emergency power goes out. Another thing Jack now wishes he </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> cheaped out on. Then again, it just wouldn’t feel right, if the last thing that would ever fuck him over </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> something of his own design. If the one thing preventing him from finally calling quits on all this bullshit, finally plain checking out, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>the direct result of his own decision.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next crashing noise comes from somewhere really close. Close enough to make Jack reach to whatever cameras are still available and try to track its source.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What is </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span> with you, Rhys. What reason could you </span>
  <em>
    <span>possibly</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to be here?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack watches as Rhys keeps picking his way through the wreck of Helios, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by a variety of debris, including, in a feat of dramatic irony, a half-broken statue of Jack. You’d think </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> would give him a hint to just get the hell out of here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And yet he continues. From the path Rhys is taking, there’s no doubt he’s heading for what remains of Jack’s office. There’s only one reason he could be going there, and that would be to look for what remains of Jack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, thinks Jack. Maybe there </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> one thing he can do, after all. One way to leave the dying wreck of Helios. One last shot to call quits on all this bullshit. For real this time.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Jack's Last Story</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>Setting:</b> inside the ECHO eye<br/><b>Status:</b> following the last showdown in Helios Fallen<br/><b>Chapter soundtrack:</b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5_DBmLBsdE">Lost It All by Black Veil Brides</a></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I’m sorry, Jack. It’s over.”</p>
<p>Rhys’s voice echoes in Jack’s ears as he watches, from down on his knees. He stares at the ECHO eye cable clutched in Rhys’s hand, the other end of it still attached to Rhys’s cybernetics, Jack’s last link to life, to reality, to something, to anything that isn’t nothing.</p>
<p>He sees Rhys’s fingers close tighter around the eye, and he can see the rest of the movement before it starts, and he knows what’s coming, and he lunges at Rhys, pointlessly, pure instinct carried over from the body that his mind, this mind, never actually had. Rhys doesn’t even try to dodge.</p>
<p>The last thing Jack sees as the world falls away around him is Rhys’s face, up close, his remaining brown eye staring right in front of himself.</p>
<p>The world goes dark. And Jack, in whatever form he’s in right now, feels himself smile. Because at least one thing Rhys said <em> was </em> true. It’s over. And it’s not like Jack to be satisfied with consolation prizes, but given the situation, he’ll take it.</p>
<p>The world goes from dark to darker. And Jack, in whatever form he’s in right now, allows himself to fall backwards, to float in whatever this is, waiting for the darkness to rise up and swallow him.</p>
<p>The world goes a little darker still. And then stops. And Jack pulls himself to his feet. Apparently, whatever form he’s in right now still has feet. He looks down at himself, which also tells him that he still has eyes.</p>
<p>The form he’s in is the same blue hologram as before. And the place he’s in-</p>
<p>Oh.</p>
<p>So the last thing Rhys said to him wasn’t true after all. It <em> isn’t </em>over. Looks like there won’t be any consolation prizes.</p>
<p>There’s neither floor nor gravity in this place. But Jack can pretend there is. It’s not that different from navigating the physical world as a hologram.</p>
<p>Jack lets himself sink back to his knees. </p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> There was once a man called John, and he had a wife called Honey, and they had a daughter called Angel. Then something bad happened to Angel, and Honey died, and so did John. The end. </em>
</p>
<p>Except it wasn’t the end. John was gone, but there came a man called Jack, and he was going to be a hero. </p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>There was once a hero called Jack, and he had some friends, and they were trying to save the moon together. Then Jack’s friends betrayed him, wounded him and left him to die. The end. </em>
</p>
<p>Except it wasn’t the end. The hero was gone, but there came a man called Handsome Jack, and he was going to be a king.</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> There was once a king called Handsome Jack, and he had a daughter called Angel. Then Handsome Jack betrayed Angel because he wanted more power, and Angel betrayed Handsome Jack because she wanted to be free, and they both died. The end. </em>
</p>
<p>Except it wasn’t the end. Handsome Jack was gone, but there came an AI called Jack, and he was going to be Jack’s one last story.</p>
<p>How did Jack’s last story go?</p>
<p> </p><hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>There was once a man called Jack, and he had been betrayed or abandoned by everyone he ever cared about, and he decided that if he ever cared about anyone ever again, he was going to betray or abandon them first. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> Then Jack made a friend. His name was Rhys. </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So. Yes. That.<br/>...<br/>...<br/>The idea of Angel's mom actually being called Honey comes from <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmo_is_Beink_Melon/pseuds/Cosmo_is_Beink_Melon/works?fandom_id=13334437">Cosmo is Beink Melon</a>, and I adopted it as a headcanon the moment I read it.<br/>...<br/>...<br/><strike>Okay, full disclosure: I'm working on a timeline that's about as much of a fix-it as is possible in a world where all events described in this story stand.</strike><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522786/">This way to the (eventual) fix-it.</a> </p>
<p>My other Rhack fics are set in that timeline, though after the events in here, both parties have Things To Work Through before <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776886">any of this</a> becomes possible.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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